Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Links! The Comics Journal

What the..?? More linkblogging?? Yes, I had planned on a more substantive post today, but I wanted to comment on The Comics Journal's revamped online presence while it is still sort of news. Check back tomorrow for some actual content.

* So, yeah, Dan Nadel and Tim Hodler have taken over as editors of the online Comics Journal. I'm actually really excited about this and cannot imagine a better choice, as the now defunct Comics Comics came closest to the sort of "finger-on-the-pulse" coverage I've always felt the Journal should provide. I spent a lot of time at the new site yesterday, and, in short, it's exceptional. It looks like it is going to be everything I had wished the Journal would be when they moved the magazine online over a year ago. Beautiful site design, a stellar list of contributors, some really exciting columns (Cartoonist's diary! A history of alternative manga!), complete magazine archives available to subscribers, and an initial barrage of features that equal or surpass the best of those offered by the previous incarnation of the magazine over the past year or so. Rather than pull out any one piece, I encourage you to visit the new site and explore. This could really be something.

* In addition, please take the time to read this interview with Nadel and Hodler, conducted by Tom Spurgeon.

* Sadly, as we welcome the new incarnation of The Comics Journal, we must say goodbye to Nadel's and Hodler's previous online magazine effort, Comics Comics. The final, regular post there is a good one: Frank Santoro muses on an Ogden Whitney comic drawn in the style of Jack Kirby. Weird and wonderful. And, yes, Santoro will of course be a regular columnist for the new Comics Journal.